Edison BOE Sues Zoning Board Over New Home Approvals

EDISON, NJ — Blocked hallways. Desks jammed together. Log jams in the staircases. All of these are familiar to Edison students, where overcrowding in the schools has been a problem for years. Now, the Edison School Board is suing the Edison Zoning Board, saying a recent spate of new construction approvals is unacceptably contributing to the overcrowding.

The school board voted 8-0 to file suit against the zoning board at the April 10 caucus meeting (Ralph Errico abstained, because he was a member of the zoning board when they voted to approve one of the new units in question). The resolution was not on the resolution, but was introduced by school board president Jerry Shi at the meeting.

"Make no mistake about it, it really is a crisis at this point," said school board member Richard Brescher, who seconded the motion. He said the suit came after 18 months of negotiations into how the district could address the overcrowding, without result.

"I dare the members of the zoning board to look into the eyes of our students who don't have room for music, who don't have room to eat in the cafeteria, who are forced to walk outside the building to get to classes because the hallways are too congested — I dare you to look into their eyes and tell them, 'this is a school board issue, not a township issue,'" Brescher said.

What pushed the school board to sue was the approval of an eight unit building at corner of Oak Tree Road and Harding Street, which will stand where a single-family home used to be. A variance was approved by the zoning board to allow the building to go forward. A zoning board employee did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment on Monday.

"The district, we tried to solve the overcrowding issue," Shi said, "We have relied on the township to hold their part of the bargain to help us, and seeing this single house being divided into multi units, it's going out of control. We are left with no choices but to go this route."

There are currently 16,807 students enrolled in the Edison School District, an increase of 262 students from last year. That number is expected to rise: In addition to the multi-unit building on Harding Ave, work is underway on a 220 unit apartment building near Herbert Hoover Middle School, in addition to work on a number of single-family homes.

School board member Elizabeth Conway called the approval of the eight-unit building a "slap in the face."

"I've spoken to the planning board, and the zoning board about what's going on in town and their response to me was, well, if we say no they'll just bring us to court so we have to do it anyway. But we need to get out the message that the public knows, look what's happening to our schools. We need to stand up for our children and give them the proper education by giving them enough room, and if this is the way to do it, I'm all for it," Conway said.

Overcrowding has also prevented the district from implementing a full-day kindergarten program, Shi said.

"Out of respect, [the Board of Education] has deferred to the municipal government," Shi said. "But that difference has its limits. If the township administration and government won't have responsibly and will make their decisions based on flawed data and misinformation, then this board must act."

A school board suing a zoning board is not unprecedented, the school board attorney said, although he recognized it could be an uphill battle.

Several members of the public spoke at the meeting, all of whom were in favor of the resolution.

You can watch the discussion below (the video will start when lawsuit resolution is introduced around the 1 hour mark):